Just curious how people feel about our ethereal armament nowadays. I've found the A Fire Inside trait to be their biggest redeeming quality, as a 528 (or is it 582, can't remember) burn tick after every attack gives them a more respectable DPS without requiring any actual investment into condition damage/duration.

I spent a bit of time a while ago trying to find a nice build that can really make Spirit Weapons useful. Any build I came up with gimped the guardian so much it didn't feel worth it. Of course, the shield can still be great if used correctly.

To me, they'll always be just a bit of fun, I can't see them ever being anything more.

currently using a spirit wepon build while leveling, while its not quite as effective as the more traditional builds it is fairly interesting, almost adds a snazy new element to the class, traiting into it is ofc the only way to make it worthwhile, you say a fire inside is the most effective, interesting, was putting my points towards SW mastery/eternel spirit/improved SW, will have to try out your suggestion.

The option assumes that you are going to let your Weapons expire. It has a Fire Inside and Fiery Wrath. I don't know if the combo will affect your Spirit Weapons, but it will certainly affect your Guardians damage. If you can time your weapons perfectly you can command them right before they expire so you make full use of the time that they are up plus an additional AOE or Knockdown.

I've chosen the Hammer and Sword, as they are the Damaging Weapons. So this build is designed to dish out a lot of damage - from SW's, Burning from SW's, and buffed damage from you.

I've chosen the Hammer (or maybe GS) because it has a large DPS base. Having buffed your symbols you get Protection and Healing with the auto-attack. You get additional protection from Signet of Judgement on top of the 100% Protection Time from Hammer. So you'll be front and center most of the time.

As far as gears are concerned, the best thing you can carry is Soldier's (Power/Toughness/Vitality) and for the Trinkets you can actually combine Valkyrie and Berserker's.

I run a SW build strong in PvP. Pump out the sword, hammer and bow. My Guardian is anything but gimped, his AA damage is slightly under massive but the Command for the SW's are incredible. The Bow is a Fan-F******-Tastic AoE heal.

The option assumes that you are going to let your Weapons expire. It has a Fire Inside and Fiery Wrath. I don't know if the combo will affect your Spirit Weapons, but it will certainly affect your Guardians damage. If you can time your weapons perfectly you can command them right before they expire so you make full use of the time that they are up plus an additional AOE or Knockdown.

I've chosen the Hammer and Sword, as they are the Damaging Weapons. So this build is designed to dish out a lot of damage - from SW's, Burning from SW's, and buffed damage from you.

I've chosen the Hammer (or maybe GS) because it has a large DPS base. Having buffed your symbols you get Protection and Healing with the auto-attack. You get additional protection from Signet of Judgement of top of the 100% Protection Time from Hammer. So you'll be front and center most of the time.

As far as gears are concerned, the best thing you can carry is Soldier's (Power/Toughness/Vitality) and for the Trinkets you can actually combine Valkyrie and Berserker's.

This is really close to what I'm using for WvW, PvE, sPvP...everything essentially lol.

http://gw2skills.net...gg9rgVK2n8uK4QA Full Soldiers, trinkets and all; Since A Fire Inside's burn damage is tied to the weapons condition stats it lets me itemize entirely for my own damage. I'm probably (almost definitely) not using an optimal weapon set, but the extra control and defense from scepter/focus feels nice and the spirit weapon damage makes up for it (500-600 with the sword followed by a 585 burn tick)

I had originally tried the build using mace/focus but the drop in dps was too large for me. I also started out using Fiery Wrath but noticed the burn time on A Fire Inside's burn was so short that I only got that 10% 1/3rd or so of the time and only on burning, and Virtue of Justice which is normally used for long guardian burns to take advantage of it doesn't give you A Fire Inside ticks when it's applied cause it's the longer burn. (atleast as far as I can tell they don't overwrite it)

I figured the overall 10% on conditions from Radiant Power was the better choice, freeing me up to get Eternal Spirit.

Expherious, on 14 December 2012 - 07:12 AM, said:

I run a SW build strong in PvP. Pump out the sword, hammer and bow. My Guardian is anything but gimped, his AA damage is slightly under massive but the Command for the SW's are incredible. The Bow is a Fan-F******-Tastic AoE heal.

I can never seem to make good use of the heal on the Bow, feels like a wasted slot usually.

You know, to be honest I feel that that build is about twice as effective as my old spirit weapon build. I'm definitely going to have to steal it

I'm glad you think that way. Upon reviewing it though, the build actually does not address one of the big concerns of a Guardian, conditions. Please let me know how you deal with that bit - you're more skilled at using Spirit Weapons than I am so let me know how you would adjust the build for Conditions.

Unexiist, on 14 December 2012 - 03:37 PM, said:

This is really close to what I'm using for WvW, PvE, sPvP...everything essentially lol.

I'm pretty much just theorizing here, so thanks for the input. I only run Spirit Weapon builds mainly as a breather to how I usually play my Guardian, which is a defense/offense hybrid. It's pretty nice that you've taken the time to check the viability of running the combo and found Radiant Power more effective. (This is actually pretty obvious as you will not be relying on Burning alone to get that additional damage boost. With a full party, you are always guaranteed that buff since other classes can dish out conditions in spades.

Upon reviewing the build I threw in, one thing I forgot to take care of is condition removal. So people who might want to use it should be ready to take it upon themselves to figure that one out.

I'm glad you think that way. Upon reviewing it though, the build actually does not address one of the big concerns of a Guardian, conditions. Please let me know how you deal with that bit - you're more skilled at using Spirit Weapons than I am so let me know how you would adjust the build for Conditions.

I think that you really have three options to deal with conditions here;

1 - you can drop 10 points in honor and put 10 points in valor - grabbing purity.
2 - you can drop 10 points in honor and put 10 more points in virtues - grabbing absolute resolve.
3 - you can swap out signet of judgment in favor of a condition removal utility skill - Contemplation of Purity or Smite condition being the two best.

Each different use has it's gains and losses, most importantly that 1 and 2 lose Selfless Daring while 3 loses out on a freed utility skill.

1 - you remove 6 conditions over the course of a minute
2 - you remove 3 conditions for each party member over the course of a minute
3 - you remove all conditions from yourself once per minute (also a stun break)

Ultimately I feel that using the utility skill slot as condition removal situationally would be the best option. Not all fractals require condition removal and in those events you can always swap them out.